I love research!

Working on my new novel set in 1890, Savage Sister, I keep coming across fascinating facts.

Did you know that brass bar rails were created in the Northwest as a result of logger's caulk boots chewing up the bar? Not a cowboy saloon/Wild West thing as is often portrayed.

I think I kinda of knew, but had forgotten, that time zones were a railroad invention in the 1880's as a way to create an orderly train timetable.

Sociologist Martín Sánchez-Jankowski describes two sorts of lifestyles to deal with scarcity. One is to hunker down, hoard what you have, and take no risks, because tomorrow is unpredictable. The other is to step out, spend what you have, and live for today, because tomorrow is unpredictable. Neither adaptation is a script for middle-class success, but a middle-class script would usually fail in conditions of insecure jobs, needy relatives, and chaotic neighborhoods. These adaptations allow the poor to make a life.

http://www.bostonreview.net/BR37.3/claude_s_fischer_culture_poverty.php

"Humans are by far the most adaptive species on the planet"

Brian Christian in The Paris Review. Interesting interview.
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/03/14/brian-christian-on-the-most-human-human/

Book Signing -- Treadmill Talk

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! - Treadmill Talk

Treadmill Desk

Most build-it-yourselfers place a shelf over the handlebars for their laptop and call it good, but I need room for books and manuscripts next to the laptop. Either a shelf-type desk is too narrow or a larger one extends too far over the treadbelt making it easy to miss-step right off the back.

This is similar to mine:
ProForm Performance 600 Treadmill $799.99

To allow space for more desk area over the treadbelt, I assembled the controls and upright facing the opposite way--angled away from the belt. Since the controls face away, I turn it on then walk around the desk to step on.

For safety I ran a cord from the bbb through cord keeper rings (the kind meant to keep electrical cords against the wall over the top of the controls and back to the desk. I can stop the treadmill with a yank on the cord.

Next I assembled the desk part.

Dolce Desk – Black $99.99 -- from Target

This desk is small, yet wide enough between the legs to straddle the treadbelt. The desktop is large enought to hold a laptop at the right angle using an elevated stand, plus a lamp, a narrow upright fan (one gets warm treadwalking), and a copy holder. The pullout keyboard drawer is wide enough for a mouse w/pad and wireless keybooard.

To make the desk tall enough and to add some storage space I purchased two cheap endtables similar to this.

End Table - Black $38.09 -- from Target

These fit nicely at each end of the desk. I elevated the desk and clamped the desk legs to the end table legs. Standing on the treadmill, I adjusted the desk height until the keyboard was at the right height for typing, then screwed the legs together.

ArtsNow Interviews Q Lindsey Barrett

I was interviewed by Gretchen Johnston of the ArtsNow program in Edmonds, Washington about teaching and writing.

Twas the night before the night before Christmas...

...and my darling girl is in Nepal. Late Christmas Eve she'll start her homeward journey from Dehli, then to Bejing, to LA and many many hours later, home: That's right, she's following Santa around. We're saving our family Christmas celebration for the 26th. So excited to see her.